Advanced Practice Nursing in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

Direct patient care is the genesis of nursing care, but in many countries of Latin America and the Caribbean the role of nurses mainly focuses on the management of care. Between 2017 and 2019, the Pan-American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) launched three key documents and promoted several initiatives to provide a strategic direction to member countries in the Region of the Americas to invest in the nursing workforce, in order to realize the ambitious aims of the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 and the 2030 Agenda to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Integral to this strategy is the advancement of the nursing profession by expanding professional roles in primary health care. The documents are titled, “Expanding the roles of nurses in Primary Health Care,” “Strategic directions for nursing in the Region of the Americas,” and “Doctoral Education in Nursing in Latin America and the Caribbean.” The first publication introduced the role of the advanced practice nurse in primary health care as a response to growing needs and to fill the gaps in access to trained and well-distributed human resources. In this chapter, the authors summarize the initiatives with a focus on strengthening the roles of nurses. Recommendations are provided on how to implement the role of advanced practice nurses in the Region to satisfy population health needs and to reach the goals of the determinants of health and universal access to health and universal health coverage.